Page 94 of Madcap with a Marquess
Rupert inhaled slowly through his nose.Let’s try for redirection.
“Perhaps when we return to London, you can aid her in her launch into society. She has never had feminine guidance, and I am sure there is no one better than you for the task.”
She straightened, a small smile curving her lips. “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
His mouth went slack. What on earth did that mean?
“And fortunate that,” she continued, her gaze flicking over his shoulder. “I am not sure evenIwould be able to make something of your wife…given her wild behavior. She wears breeches, Rupert. Ridesastride. With other men. It is vulgar.”
“She cannot help the way she is, Mother,” he said, running a hand roughly through his hair, just preventing himself from yanking it. It’s not as though Franny would be walking into a London ballroom in breeches.
His mother let out an aggrieved sigh. “This is all your father’s fault. Why he had to go making that preposterous marriage contract, I’ll never know. I’ve always known from the beginning she was a mistake. The Earl couldn’t even control her.”
Rupert pressed the heel of his palms into his eyes and tried to swallow down his boiling rage. He never lost his composure with Mother. But every time she opened her mouth, it was a different iteration of the same sentiment—her spewing hatred of Franny. For no bloody fucking reason. And it was Goddamned exhausting.
“If I had only had the chance,” she said, an odd smile curving her lips. “I would have chosen the perfect wife for you, Rupert. One who would have helped accelerate your political trajectory. But instead, you have one who will only be a hindrance to it.”
“That is enough!”
His mother flinched, her smile faltering, and she blinked at him with wide eyes.
“The truth of the matter is you did not get to choose, Mother,” he bit out. “Ididn’t get to choose. We have always known that would be the case. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t what we wanted. I am married to Franny. There is no changing it.Thatis the reality. I came to terms with that long ago. And you must as well.”
A soft throat cleared behind Rupert, and he twisted around, already knowing who he would find.Shite. Bugger. Bloody fucking hell.Franny’s chin tipped up mulishly, and her green eyes blazed. But he hadn’t missed the hurt flash before she covered it up.
And then his mother’s elated words rang through the room. “Oh, but see that is why I had to rush out here to see you, Rupert. We don’t need to come to terms with this marriage any longer. I have found us a way out.”
An icy frost spread through Rupert’s veins, and his gaze darted to his mother, whose eyes glittered with triumph. The chill crawled over his insides, and his muscles twitched. “What do you mean, Mother?”
She slowly lifted her hand and pointed at Franny. “That woman? Is a liar. We have been betrayed, Rupert. She and Lord Pinehurst worked together to fool us. She is abastard,” his mother spat. “She isn’t his daughter.”
His gaze shot back to Franny, and the fire in her eyes died. And he saw it for what it was. Defeat.
This is your answer. I’m a bastard. You have been deceived. We can get an annulment, and you’ll be free of me. And me of you.
Never. He never wanted to be free of her.
He held Franny’s gaze, even as he spoke to his mother. “I know of Franny’s lineage.” He needed her to see the sincerity with which he meant his words. “And it matters not at all to me. I do not want out of this marriage.”
He swallowed hard, praying Franny believed him. “I may not have had a choice,” he said hoarsely. “But that is something I will be eternally grateful for. Because I was—am—far too much of an idiot to have ever made that choice on my own. And it terrifies me to think that if it had been left up to me, I would have missed out on marrying the love of my life.”
Franny’s lips parted, and her fingers fisted in her skirts. Her eyes, her beautiful green and gold eyes, swam with heady emotion. With relief.
He walked up to her and cupped her face. “I love you.” His voice shook with the fervor behind his words. “I’m so sorry, Franny. For so many things—”
“I knew it.” His mother’s shrill voice sliced through the room. “She has corrupted you—a disease rotting you from the inside out. It has already begun.”
His hands fell away from Franny’s face as he turned fully toward his mother.
Disdain curled her lips, her dark eyes flashing. “When I found her mother’s diaries in the trunks the Earl had delivered back in London, I knew you were in dire trouble.” Her beady eyes flicked to Franny, contempt flashing. “She’s the daughter of anactor, Rupert. And her mother was no better than a whore. Now her daughter is following in their footsteps, twisting your mind, luring you into sin.”
Rupert’s chin jerked in, and a gasp fled Franny. Good Lord, she’d rifled through Franny’s personal belongings. He glanced back at Franny, her face slack with shock.
“My mother’s diaries?” she mouthed, barely above a whisper.
His heart sagged in his chest. Diaries, it would seem, Franny hadn’t even known existed. And he knew, based on how Franny felt about her mother’s locket, what those diaries would mean to her.
“You went through her possessions? That was an invasion of privacy—”
